John muepht



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J. MURPHY. GUARD FOR STEAMBOAT PADDLE WHEELS. No. 320,160.

ATTORNEYS.

WITNESSES man mares JOHN MURPHY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

GUARD FOR STEAMBOAT PADDLE-WHEELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,160, dated June 16, 1885.

Application filed December 3, 1884.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN MURPHY, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Guard for Steamboat Paddle-WVheels, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact de scription.

The object of my invention is to protect the paddle-wheels of steamboats from damage by floating ice or otherlfloating substances.

The invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is an end View of a paddle provided with my improved guard, parts being broken away. Fig. 2 is a face View of the same. Fig. 3 is an end view of the same, showing the guard adjusted for protecting only one side of the wheel.

The guard is formed of two semicircular side pieces, A, mounted to turn on the crank-shaft B, one on each side of the wheel 0, and between the said side pieces semicircular or other shaped rods D are arranged, which are secured to cross-rods E, uniting the side pieces, A, at the ends of the curves and at the middle of the same, or the side pieces can be united by a series of cross-rods, which also form a cage, or the cage between the side pieces can be formed in any othersuitable manner. The side pieces, A, may be made solid or perfo rated, as may be desired. From the middle of the inner side piece A a bar, G, projects upward, which is used to shift or swing the guard. The said bar may be connected with a series of levers, &c., extending to the engine-room for shifting the guard, or the guard may be shifted direct by means of the bar G. Ordinarily the guard hangs on the shaft B, as

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shown in Fig. 1, and thus protects both the front and rear of that part of the wheel 0 below the wheel-box H. The ice strikes the guard, and thus is prevented from damaging the wheel. If only the front part of the Wheel is to be protected, the guard is swung into the position shown in Fig. 3, so as to cover the front half of the wheel. When theboat moves in the inverse direction-for eXample,as ferryboats dothe guard is reversed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with a steamboat pad dle-wheel, of a guard hung loosely on the shaft of the wheel and surrounding the wheel below its shaft, whereby the wheel will be protected from floating objects in the forward or backward movement of the boat, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with a steamboat paddle-wheel, of a guard hung loosely on the shaft of said paddle-wheel and surrounding said wheel below the shaft, and a lever for adj usting said guard, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with a steamboat paddle-wheel, of semicircular side pieces mounted loosely on the shaft thereof at opposite sides of the wheel, and wires between said side pieces to form a guard or cage for receiving or protecting the lower half of the wheel, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with the semicircular side pieces, A, mounted to turn on the shaft B. of rods secured between the said side pieces, and of the bar G, secured to one of the side pieces, substantially as herein shown and described.

JOHN MURPHY.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM J. DELANY, SAMUEL COCHRAN. 

